On January 25, 1996 the international consortium Ö-Call, later known as max.mobil and now T-Mobile Austria, was issued a frequency license by the Federal Ministry of Science, Transport and the Arts (BMWVK; GZ BMWVK 101749/IV-JD/96) and thus became Austria's second service provider to operate a GSM network (2 x 7.8 MHz in the 900 MHz band). The license was issued for a limited period (until December 31, 2015), and the license fee came to EUR 290,691,337 EUR (ATS 4 billion). max.mobil launched its service on the market in the same year (October 1996).
As a spinoff of Austria's Post and Telegraph Administration (PTV), Mobilkom's mandate was to provide mobile voice telephony service, even without a license. From July 1990 onward, Mobilkom offered TACS-based services in the 900 MHz band (originally approx. 2 x 13 MHz; from Jan. 1, 2000 approx. 2 x 8 MHz) under the name "D-Netz". By December 1994, the company was already providing GSM coverage (2 x 7.8 MHz) in major towns and along main roads in Austria under the name "A1".
In an assessment decision issued on November 6, 1996 (BMWVK 120641/IV-JD/96), the Federal Ministry of Science, Transport and the Arts confirmed that Mobilkom is authorized to provide reserved communication services using the analog mobile radio communications network in the 900 MHz band. In another assessment decision issued on the same date, the Ministry confirmed that Mobilkom is authorized to provide reserved communication services in the digital cellular mobile band (GSM). In line with the amount paid by max.mobil, Mobilkom was charged a license fee of EUR 290,691,337.